Bands and Entertainment

Schedule

Thursday

Grateful Gary, 9 pm to midnight (Pavilion)

Friday

Shanty Irish, 5 pm to 7 pm (Cooters)

Jake Dunn and the Blackbirds, 9 pm to midnight (Pavilion)

Saturday

Grateful Gary, 12 pm to 2 pm

JB Stalnaker/Tim White, 2 pm to 4 pm (Pavilion)

Driftwood, 9 pm to midnight (Pavilion)

Sunday

The Plate Scrapers, 2 pm to 5 pm (River Stage)

Buzzz City, following the Awards Ceremony (Pavilion)

Grateful Gary

OTR 2022 entertainment opens with Grateful Gary, a solo guitarist and vocalist from the Chicago area who plays a blend of hippie and retro music like Crosby Stills Nash, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, and Neil Young. He has entertained at numerous other caver events like NSS Convention, Kentucky Speleofest, MVOR, and previous OTRs. Gary also is ‘one of us,’ a caver, NSS Life Member, Mammoth Cave Resto Crew member, chair of the Sub-Urban Chicago Grotto, and Assistant Copy Editor for the NSS News. He also put together this year’s OTR Guidebook!

Grateful Gary also will be playing music on Saturday afternoon at Cooters Pub, 12:30-2:30 pm, where he will feature mostly folk/acoustic songs like Bob Dylan, John Prine, Jim Croce, and John Denver.

Otherwise, Gary can be found at the controls of the Pavilion sound booth for the rest of the weekend, as he’s a fully-qualified audio engineer.

The Shanty Irish Band

Everyone enjoys a wee bit of Irish music, and perhaps also a pint of Guinness! What better way to enjoy them both than to check out The Shanty Irish Band. Consisting of friends, cavers, and long-time TRA members, the lads play traditional Irish folk music that dates back to the 18th and 19th Centuries, what would be heard in the so-named ‘singing pubs’ that are scattered throughout Ireland. Many of the songs, shanties, reels, and jigs tell tales of fighting, revolution, love, and the wonders of poitin and porter (whisky and beer). Come join The Shanty Irish Band on Friday at Cooters Pub.

Here is a video of Shanty Irish doing what Shanty Irish does best!

Joining us Friday night at the Pavilion Stage will be Jake Dunn and the Blackbirds.

Crawling out of a metaphorical cave from some holler in Meigs County, Ohio, and literally hosted by the Parkersburg Area Grotto (thank you PAG!), Jake (lead vocals and guitar) and the boys (Jesse Forrest on drums, Bobby Wheeler on bass, Chuck McPeek and Dustin Nash on guitars) are a 5-piece whirlwind of well-seasoned musicians equally adept at of rocking-out, singing a soulful ballad, or twisting a thought-provoking lyric in their own unique high-energy Alt-Country Rock style. It’s been a long time coming for OTR to host these talented musicians on our stage, and as a true “caver band” for OTR’s Caver Event, we are honored to welcome Jake Dunn and the Blackbirds down rope to our event.

Driftwood

Saturday night at the Pavilion, headlining our OTR 2024 Entertainment Schedule, will be the hugely popular folk-rock band, Driftwood. These veterans of countless festivals and sell out shows all over North America come to us from Binghamton, New York. Founders and multi-instrumentalists Joe Kollar and Dan Forsyth will be joining Claire Byrne (violin), Joey Acuri (upright bass), and Sam Fishman (drums) to create an Old Timers Reunion musical experience like none other. Accolades from coast-to-coast and thousands of loyal fans attest to Driftwood’s sublime song-writing skills as well as their stellar musicianship as individuals, and especially when in collaboration. With their newest album, “December Last Call”, hot off the presses, we are indeed fortunate to welcome the experience that is a Driftwood Show as we celebrate OTR 2024 Caver Weekend.

Video

The Plate Scrapers

Y’all come! Derek Kretner (banjo), Andrew Jordon (guitar), Robbie Mann (fiddle), Jody Mosser (dobro), and Kevin Johnson (upright bass) make up our River Stage Sunday Afternoon Band, The Plate Scrapers. Sharing the stage with legends like Larry Keel, Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen, and The Seldom Scene — and appearing over the past 10 years at festivals like Delfest and as IBMA’s Showcase Band — these boys have expounded and expanded the boundaries of Progressive Bluegrass Music throughout the mid-Atlantic region with sheer talent and songwriting skill. Have a heapin’ helpin’ of that High Lonesome Sound by helping OTR clear the Sunday afternoon dishes for a tasty bite of the one and only Plate Scrapers.

Video

Buzzz City​


Buzzz City is a loose confederation of caver-musicians who have played group performances for years at OTR. They formerly played at their campsite, at Cooters, or wherever they could. In recent years, Buzzz City performed at the First Aid Station as a thank-you to First Aid and to raise money to fund medical supplies. The ‘Band-Aide’ (get it?) fundraiser started eight years ago. The last two years, Buzzz City performed its Band-Aide benefit at the Pavilion, and the band has proved to be a big hit (not to mention the money raised for the First Aid Station)! This year’s performance once again will immediately follow the Sunday Awards Ceremony at the Pavilion, and once again will be a benefit for the First Aid Station. You’ll hear lots of good old-timey songs, including their crowd favorite, The OTR Anthem!